Sen. Mark Kirk (IL) believes he is taking the high road by sitting out his party’s carnival of a convention. Just because Kirk declined to endorse Donald, it doesn’t mean that he hasn’t hitched his wagon to the GOP clown car of absurdities and offensive statements.

Mark Kirk has a habit of belittling women and reducing them to tropes and body parts. He once said that the Queen of Jordan is “as good-looking as a supermodel but with a solid business education.” He denigrated a female opponent as “desperate and shrill.” He also referred to an opponent as a “little rich girl” who was “having a temper tantrum” when she dared to criticize him. He added that she “has yet to lift her manicured little pinkie.”

And now he has focused his leering eyes on Melania Trump.

The GOP has taken great pains to make clear that Melania is more than a model; more than her looks. The Trump campaign has repeatedly touted her “intelligence” and “class.” Melania herself claimed on national television to Matt Lauer that she was responsible for writing the keynote convention speech that we now all know blatantly plagiarized First Lady Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic convention speech.

But according to Kirk, “pretty woman” Melania couldn’t have possibly been responsible for her own actions. In a condescending interview, Kirk stated: “The right thing to do is to have full accountability for the guy that screwed up. [Melania] is a very pretty woman with that foreign accent of hers. Very endearing and very genuine. It was a good performance that was ruined by the speechwriter.”

Not only does Kirk try to let Melania off the hook for her own actions, but he belittles her in the process. Calling her “a very pretty woman, with that foreign accent of hers,” reduces her to a bundle of attractive body parts and diminishes her humanity and her intellect. And it’s downright creepy.

Kirk may be trying to distance himself from his party while he’s locked in a tight Senate battle with Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth. But like the rest of today’s GOP, his views are stuck in the Stone Age.

A native of Dallas, Texas, Ginger McKnight-Chavers is a graduate of Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and Harvard Law School. She was a Kathryn Gurfein Writing Fellow at Sarah Lawrence College, and her debut novel, In the Heart of Texas, will be released in Fall 2016 by She Writes Press.